Auto Dealers

ON THE SKIDS

Perhaps no industry has witnessed more wreckage from the economic crisis than the automotive sector. From manufacturing to media, millions of jobs are tied to this beleaguered industry. Auto sales realized their worst performance since 1992 because of the sales reversal of light vehicles, from 16.1 million units in 2007 to only 13.2 million in 2008. General Motors alone lost $30.9 billion. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit Washington, D.C.-based think tank, approximately 19,000 fewer African Americans were employed in the auto industry in November 2008 than in December 2007, when the recession began.